Landmark configuration matcher

ABSTRACT

Systems and techniques for determining a list of geographic location candidates from an image of an environment are described. Open source data indicative of the earth&#39;s surface may be obtained and combined into grids to create region data to gain a representation of the earth&#39;s surface within each grid cell. An image of an environment may be obtained from an unknown camera. Image characteristics may be compared to the region data to determine error between the image characteristics and projections of the region data. A list of lowest error geographic location candidates may be determined and provided to the user.

GOVERNMENT LICENSE RIGHTS

This invention was made with government support under NGA ProjectAnnouncement #HM0476-18-9-1004 awarded by the NationalGeospatial-Intelligence Agency. The government has certain rights in theinvention.

BACKGROUND 1. Field

Embodiments of the invention generally relate to geolocation, and moreparticularly to techniques for determining the position, orientation andfocal length of a photo or video image where this data is unavailable.

2. Related Art

Traditionally, determining an unknown location from an image taken withan unknown camera and unknown camera parameters (tilt, roll, focallength, etc.) relies upon measuring angles (triangulation) or distances(trilateration) to predetermined points of known location (i.e.,landmarks) visible in the image. For example, celestial navigationrelies upon measuring the angles to known stars whose positions arerecoded in ephemerides, thus serving as landmarks for geolocation.Similarly, global positioning system navigation relies on determiningthe distances to a number of satellites that continually broadcast theirpositions. However, in some circumstances, such as a picture taken of amountain range in Afghanistan, the size of the area in which the imagemay have been taken is too large and the features visible in the imagetoo common to associate them with landmarks to rely on time-consumingmanual methods such as resection.

What is needed is a technique that can quickly and automaticallyidentify a location utilizing visual information exclusively.Specifically, when a location and camera information is not known butvisual information such as, for example, horizons, ridgelines,landcover, and landmarks are known, the location can be determined byestimating the camera and image characteristics and comparing them toknown environmental information.

SUMMARY

Embodiments of the invention address the above-described need byproviding for novel techniques for determining a location based onvisual information. The user may obtain a video or a photo with noinformation on the location, pose or other information about the cameraand compare features of the surrounding environment visible in the videoor a photo to features in a known surface terrain data. The operator'sposition can be determined quickly and accurately, even where thesurface terrain data includes some degree of noise or inaccuracy. Inparticular, in a first embodiment, a method of determining a geographiclocation from a comparison of an image of an environment and global datais performed; the method comprising the steps of obtaining dataindicative of regions of the earth from a plurality of data sources,wherein the data indicative of the regions of the earth comprises atleast elevation data, creating a grid of latitude by longitude cellsfrom the data indicative of the regions of the earth and combining thedata indicative of the regions of the earth to create region-specificdata in each cell of the grid, receiving an image of the environment atthe geographic location, analyzing the image of the environment todetermine camera characteristics and image characteristics, comparingthe camera characteristics and the image characteristics to theregion-specific data in at least one of the cells, determining a list oflikely geographic location candidates that match the environment in theimage based on the comparison, and presenting the user with the list ofgeographic location candidates.

In a second embodiment, at least one non-transitory computer-readablemedia storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed by aprocessor, perform a method of determining a geographic location from acomparison of an image of an environment and region-specific data, themethod comprising the steps of, obtaining data indicative of regions ofthe earth from a plurality of data sources, creating a grid of cellsfrom the data indicative of the regions of the earth, combining the dataindicative of the regions of the earth for each cell to create theregion-specific data, creating masks within each cell to efficientlyaccess the region-specific data for comparison, receiving the image ofthe environment from a camera, analyzing the image of the environment todetermine camera characteristics and image characteristics, wherein theimage characteristics comprises a set of evaluation points projectedonto a horizon in the image, comparing the camera characteristics andthe image characteristics to the region-specific data, determining anerror between the image characteristics and the camera characteristicsand the region-specific data, determining a list of geographic locationcandidates based on the error, and presenting the user with the list ofgeographic location candidates.

In a third embodiment, a system for determining a geographic location ofan environment depicted in an image of the environment, a data storestoring region-specific data indicative of a region of the earth, atleast one non-transitory computer-readable media storingcomputer-executable instructions that, when executed by a processor,perform a method of determining a list of geographic locations from acomparison of the image and the region-specific data, the methodcomprising the steps of obtaining data indicative of the earth from aplurality of data sources, wherein the data indicative of the earthcomprises at least landmarks and elevation data, creating a grid ofcells from the data indicative of the earth and combining the dataindicative of the earth to create the region-specific data in each cellof the grid, receiving the image of the environment, analyzing the imageof the environment to determine camera characteristics and imagecharacteristics, comparing the camera characteristics and the imagecharacteristics in the image to the region-specific data in at least oneof the cells, determining a list of likely geographic locationcandidates that match the geographic image based on the comparison, andpresenting the user with the list of geographic location candidates.

This summary is provided to introduce a selection of concepts in asimplified form that are further described below in the detaileddescription. This summary is not intended to identify key features oressential features of the claimed subject matter, nor is it intended tobe used to limit the scope of the claimed subject matter. Other aspectsand advantages of the current invention will be apparent from thefollowing detailed description of the embodiments and the accompanyingdrawing figures.

BRIEF DESCRIPTIONS OF THE DRAWING FEATURES

Embodiments of the invention are described in detail below withreference to the attached drawing figures, wherein:

FIG. 1 depicts an exemplary hardware platform for certain embodiments ofthe invention;

FIG. 2 shows a schematic depiction of a process of matching an imagewith Geographical Knowledge Base data;

FIG. 3 depicts exemplary grids to narrow the search fields of theEarth's surface;

FIG. 4A depicts an exemplary tilt camera angle;

FIG. 4B depicts exemplary roll camera angles;

FIG. 4C depicts relative order of image objects;

FIG. 5 depicts an exemplary image with a ridgeline compared to aGeographic Knowledge Base ridgeline;

FIG. 6 depicts exemplary images with relative height comparisons;

FIGS. 7A-C depict fine matching comparisons of Geographic Knowledge Basedata adjusted to fit image ridgelines; and

FIG. 8 depicts a flowchart illustrating the operation of a method ofreducing the number of geographic candidates in accordance with oneembodiment of the invention.

The drawings do not limit the invention to the specific embodimentsdisclosed and described herein. The drawings are not necessarily toscale, emphasis instead being placed upon clearly illustrating theprinciples of the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

At a high level, embodiments of the invention perform geolocation ofimages taken at unknown locations. Large amounts of possible locationsmay be eliminated with rough estimates such that a more rigorousanalysis of a smaller set of data may be performed. In particular,embodiments of the invention can determine a list of likely locationsbased on photographs and videos taken by a user. In some embodiments,open source data of the Earth's surface may be combined to produce aGeolocation Knowledge Base (GKB). The GKB may comprise elevation,landmarks, landcover, water bodies, water lines, and any other data thatmay be useful. Further, in some embodiments, the Earth's surface may bebroken up into grids to narrow the field of search to small and smallerareas to reduce the data analysis. Characteristics of the image, thecamera, and the relative details within the image may be compared to GKBinformation at grid points to determine a list of candidategeolocations.

In some embodiments, the list of locations may be determined withrelative likelihood based on information such as estimates of tiltrange, roll range, and relative distance to objects in the image.

Further, the objects present in the image such as, for example,horizons, ridgelines, landcover, and landmarks may be used. The imageand camera information may be compared to the information in theGeolocation Knowledge Base (GKB) to determine matching errors withsimilar terrain. The list of likely location matches based on thelikelihood of the match may be provided to the user.

The subject matter of embodiments of the invention is described indetail below to meet statutory requirements; however, the descriptionitself is not intended to limit the scope of claims. Rather, the claimedsubject matter might be embodied in other ways to include differentsteps or combinations of steps similar to the ones described in thisdocument, in conjunction with other present or future technologies.Minor variations from the description below will be obvious to oneskilled in the art and are intended to be captured within the scope ofthe claimed invention. Terms should not be interpreted as implying anyparticular ordering of various steps described unless the order ofindividual steps is explicitly described.

The following detailed description of embodiments of the inventionreferences the accompanying drawings that illustrate specificembodiments in which the invention can be practiced. The embodiments areintended to describe aspects of the invention in sufficient detail toenable those skilled in the art to practice the invention. Otherembodiments can be utilized, and changes can be made without departingfrom the scope of the invention. The following detailed description is,therefore, not to be taken in a limiting sense. The scope of embodimentsof the invention is defined only by the appended claims, along with thefull scope of equivalents to which such claims are entitled.

In this description, references to “one embodiment,” “an embodiment,” or“embodiments” mean that the feature or features being referred to areincluded in at least one embodiment of the technology. Separatereference to “one embodiment” “an embodiment”, or “embodiments” in thisdescription do not necessarily refer to the same embodiment and are alsonot mutually exclusive unless so stated and/or except as will be readilyapparent to those skilled in the art from the description. For example,a feature, structure, or act described in one embodiment may also beincluded in other embodiments but is not necessarily included. Thus, thetechnology can include a variety of combinations and/or integrations ofthe embodiments described herein.

Turning first to FIG. 1, an exemplary hardware platform 100 for certainembodiments of the invention is depicted. Computer 102 can be a desktopcomputer, a laptop computer, a server computer, a mobile device such asa smartphone or tablet, or any other form factor of general- orspecial-purpose computing device. Depicted with computer 102 are severalcomponents, for illustrative purposes. In some embodiments, certaincomponents may be arranged differently or absent. Additional componentsmay also be present. Included in computer 102 is system bus 104, wherebyother components of computer 102 can communicate with each other. Incertain embodiments, there may be multiple busses or components maycommunicate with each other directly. Connected to system bus 104 iscentral processing unit (CPU) 106. Also attached to system bus 104 areone or more random-access memory (RAM) modules 108. Also attached tosystem bus 104 is graphics card 110. In some embodiments, graphics card110 may not be a physically separate card, but rather may be integratedinto the motherboard or the CPU 106. In some embodiments, graphics card110 has a separate graphics-processing unit (GPU) 112, which can be usedfor graphics processing or for general purpose computing (GPGPU). Alsoon graphics card 110 is GPU memory 114. Connected (directly orindirectly) to graphics card 110 is display 116 for user interaction. Insome embodiments no display is present, while in others it is integratedinto computer 102. Similarly, peripherals such as keyboard 118 and mouse120 are connected to system bus 104. Like display 116, these peripheralsmay be integrated into computer 102 or absent. Also connected to systembus 104 is local storage 122, which may be any form of computer-readablemedia and may be internally installed in computer 102 or externally andremoveably attached.

Computer-readable media include both volatile and nonvolatile media,removable and nonremovable media, and contemplate media readable by adatabase. For example, computer-readable media include (but are notlimited to) RAM, ROM, EEPROM, flash memory or other memory technology,CD-ROM, digital versatile discs (DVD), holographic media or otheroptical disc storage, magnetic cassettes, magnetic tape, magnetic diskstorage, and other magnetic storage devices. These technologies canstore data temporarily or permanently. However, unless explicitlyspecified otherwise, the term “computer-readable media” should not beconstrued to include physical, but transitory, forms of signaltransmission such as radio broadcasts, electrical signals through awire, or light pulses through a fiber-optic cable. Examples of storedinformation include computer-useable instructions, data structures,program modules, and other data representations.

Finally, in some embodiments, network interface card (NIC) 124 is alsooptionally attached to system bus 104 and allows computer 102 tocommunicate over a network such as network 126. NIC 124 can be any formof network interface known in the art, such as Ethernet, ATM, fiber,Bluetooth, or Wi-Fi (i.e., the IEEE 802.11 family of standards). NIC 124connects computer 102 to local network 126, which may also include oneor more other computers, such as computer 128, and network storage, suchas data store 130. Generally, a data store such as data store 130 may beany repository from which information can be stored and retrieved asneeded. Examples of data stores include relational or object-orienteddatabases, spreadsheets, file systems, flat files, directory servicessuch as LDAP and Active Directory, or email storage systems. A datastore may be accessible via a complex API (such as, for example,Structured Query Language), a simple API providing only read, write andseek operations, or any level of complexity in between. Some data storesmay additionally provide management functions for data sets storedtherein such as backup or versioning. Data stores can be local to asingle computer such as computer 128, accessible on a local network suchas local network 126, or remotely accessible over Internet 132. Localnetwork 126 is in turn connected to Internet 132, which connects manynetworks such as local network 126, remote network 134 or directlyattached computers such as computer 136. In some embodiments, computer102 can itself be directly connected to Internet 132.

In some embodiments, as depicted in FIG. 2, a process for determining alist of geolocation candidates, generally referenced by numeral 200, maycomprise combining global open source data indicative of features of theearth's surface and object on the earth's surface and comparing withdata obtained by a user. An image obtained by the user and the globaldata may then be compared to determine a list of candidate geographiclocations of the environment depicted in the image. At step 202, globaldata is obtained. The global data may be geographic data that, in someembodiments, may be open source data. The geographic data may beobtained via satellites, aerial vehicles, and ground/water collectionmethods. The global data may include images, video, annotation, any useradded text, location information, relative distance information betweenobjects, topography, landmarks, or any other information that may beuseful as described in embodiments herein. Open source data may becollected from Digital Elevation Models based on monoscopic or stereopair imaging, radar, and elevation measurements. In some embodiments,the Digital Elevation Models are collected from Advanced SpaceborneThermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER), Shuttle RadarTopography (SRTM), TerraSAR-X add-ons for digital elevation measurements(TanDEM-X), and any other DEM.

Further, in some embodiments, open source land cover data may beobtained for comparison with the images. The land cover data may beobtained from GeoCover Landsat 7 data, LandScan global populationdistribution data for urban and rural environments, and Dynamic LandCover Dataset (AU DLCD) for vegetation indexes.

In some embodiments, crowd-sourced datasets of streets, rivers,landmarks, and any other information supplied by people may be used. Inone example, this information may be obtained from Open Street Map(OSM). Further, in some embodiments, country lines may be obtained fromcountry outlines (such as ArcGIS data), shoreline data may be obtainedfrom the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Organization (NOAA), and celltower information may be used from Open Cell ID. The data may becombined to create information indicative of any region in the world andmay generally be referred to as region-specific data or global data.

The global data covers most of the world and, therefore, providesexpansive coverage of the earth for visual-based location determination.The global data may be combined to create data that is indicative ofelevation, landmarks, and natural and man-made structures at worldwidelocations. In some embodiments, the global data from each of the sourcesmay be combined and into a large data set and masks created forcategorization and efficient access and comparison. Further, the datamay be broken up into various regional locations based on grid creationover the earth's surface as described in some embodiments below.

In some embodiments, the global data may be processed in block 204 tocreate a Geolocation Knowledge Base (GKB) 206. The global datacomprising streets, rivers, landmarks, elevations, and otherenvironmental object data may be separated into one-degree latitude byone-degree longitude cells across the surface of the earth as depictedin block 302 in FIG. 3. In some embodiments, the cells are created froma 0.2-by 0.2-degree grid. This creates a grid that reduces the globalview of the earth to focus on smaller cells, individually. From the opensource data each cell may be analyzed to determine the cells thatcontain land and water and outlines of the land may be determined.Further, cells that contain DEM data and contain land may be determined.

In some embodiments, masks may be created for different objectscontained within each cell. For example, masks may be created for ocean,land, vegetation, desert, forest, urban, rural, mountains, hills,valleys, ridgelines, houses, buildings, or any other feature in theenvironment that may be categorized to create efficient search queriesand stored in the GKB. The masks are discussed in more detail below.

In some embodiments, the GKB in block 206 may be any database accessibleby the user in the field. The GKB may be accessed wirelessly or may bestored on a hard drive accessible by the user. In some embodiments,portions of, or all of, the GKB may be stored on a user device. Forexample, the user may be a military soldier stationed in Afghanistan.Because the soldier is expected to be in this region only, dataindicative of Afghanistan is stored. Only cells and grid points inAfghanistan may be stored, reducing the information that may beanalyzed. Further, the soldier may be on a mission in a particularregion of Afghanistan such as Kabul. In this situation, the user mayonly require data indicative of Kabul. This may reduce the amount ofdata that may be filtered while in the field and reduce the time to runthe image against the region-specific data. Further, in someembodiments, the user may input an expected region in which the user islocated and the matching search may begin with, or be limited to, thatregion or general location. In some embodiments, the region-specificdata may generally reference global data or a reduced data subset of theglobal data such as, for example, Afghanistan and Kabul.

At block 208 the image is collected by the user and submitted forlocation query. The image may be collected by any camera or video andany associated metadata and added text and user annotations may beprovided with the image. In some embodiments, the user may addannotations by text input and in some embodiments, the user may provideoutlines of objects directly on the screen and store the image with theannotations. The user may further provide a general region of interestto immediately narrow the matching region of interest and reduce thedata to be processed.

After the GKB is created from the global data and the image is obtainedfrom the user, the image may be compared to region-specific data whichmay be the global data or may be a subset of the global data narrowed tothe region of interest. In some embodiments, the output is a list oflocation candidates as depicted in block 212 and a ground view from eachlocation may be viewed as in block 214. Block 214 presents the imageobtained from the user with on overlay of the most likely geographiclocation determined based on the least amount of error between the imageand the geographic location candidate.

FIG. 3 depicts an exemplary process of creating the GKB generallyreferenced by numeral 300. Once the global geographic data is gatheredas described above, the global data may be fused together and maskscreated to create an efficient matching process. This data processingmay be performed to narrow search queries thus reducing the overallamount of data processing. In some embodiments, the area of the earthmay be divided into a one-degree latitude by one-degree longitude, or0.2-degree by 0.2-degree, grid as shown in block 302. Once the grid isdetermined, each cell of the grid may be analyzed. Lines between landand water may be determined. Cells that contain DEM data and containland may further be determined. These initial determinations may reducethe data to be analyzed based on the general location and the content ofthe images from the user. For example, if the image appears to be takenon land, only the cells containing land should be analyzed.Alternatively, if a shoreline is present in the image, cells out ofrange of the shoreline may be eliminated from further analysis.

In some embodiments, the cells are further divided into triangulargrids. As depicted in blocks 304 and 306, grid points are positioned 100m apart creating a triangular grid. The triangular grid may furthernarrow the cell to smaller areas for analysis. At each grid point, a setof equally angularly-spaced lines radially projected from the grid pointmay be created. Along the lines, altitude and distance to ridgelines andany landmarks, and land cover may be computed. Block 306 depicts anexemplary view of three grid points with 100-meter distances betweeneach grid point. This sets a 100-meter triangular grid in each cell ofthe global data.

Block 308 depicts an exemplary ridgeline 310 with intersecting visiblepoints from the gridlines projected radially at one-degree incrementsfrom the grid point. The ridgeline 310 may be evaluated based on theintersection of the gridlines 312 with the horizon 310 in block 308.Further, any landmarks such as, for example, buildings, trees, streams,lakes, towers, roadways, power lines, or any other objects that mayvisible in the image may be compared to data stored in the GKB. Somepoints of the ridgeline 310 may be obscured by vegetation or buildingsfor example. The ridgeline 310 may be estimated at these points bycreating splines of any polynomial dimension as shown in block 312.Further, the invisible ridgeline may be created using any mathematicalalgorithm that may be learned from natural ridgeline data. The data iscompressed and stored in the GKB for comparison to ridgeline dataobtained from the image as described below.

In some embodiments, masks may be created for the various data that maybe recognized or otherwise input into the system. In some embodiments,the cells are analyzed for landmark data such as, for example, rivers,streams, major and minor roadways, intersections, power lines,buildings, parks, piers, sand, water, water line, wetland, urban, rural,or any other natural or man-made structure or feature that may berecognized and matched to image or user input data. The global data maybe categorized into masks for comparison to the user and camera data.For example, masks may be created for flat, hills, mountains, lowelevation, high elevation, elevation transitions, and any otherelevation characterizations that may be useful. The elevation masks maybe created from the DEMs.

In some embodiments, masks may optionally be created for land cover. Theland cover masks may be broken down into vegetation, fields, forest,trees, water, urban water, urban greenway, rural, suburban, urban, denseurban, large urban building lot, large rural building lot, and any otherland cover that may be useful.

In some embodiments, any data that may be collected and useful forgenerating masks may be used. For example, Multispectral Images (MSI)may be used for determining vegetation, waterways, water bodies, and anyother land cover and landmarks. Further, OSM data may be used todetermine water bodies and waterline heatmaps as well as roadways andintersections. Any data collected for analysis may be fused to generatethe GKB.

The global data and the number of geographic location candidates may bereduced based solely on the information obtained from open source data.Regions, or cells, where there is a lack of information such as, forexample, on the ocean, may be removed such that no analysis is provided.Further, rapidly changing regions such as deserts without any landmarksmay also be removed. However, if landmarks or other recognizableindicators occur, these cells may be stored in the GKB. For example, ageolocation may not be recognizable from an image of the ocean from aboat, but if a buoy is in the image, and a recognizable feature such asan identification number is present, this may be stored in the GKB and alocation may be determined.

In some embodiments, the user may obtain image and video information tosubmit a location query to the application for comparison to the GKBdata for location determination as in block 208 in FIG. 2. The user maycollect an image in any environment around the earth. The imageinformation may be a single image, a panoramic image, or a plurality ofimages from a single location that may be analyzed in tandem or splicedtogether and analyzed together. The information in the image that may beanalyzed may be horizon, ridgeline, landmarks, land cover, and any otherinformation that is stored in the GKB and may be compared to the imagedata. Further, relative distances from the camera to features in thecamera may be estimated as well as camera characteristics such as tilt,roll, field of view (FOV), lens distortion and any other characteristicsthat may be useful.

In some embodiments, camera pose may influence the comparison and errorcalculation between the image of the environment captured with thecamera and the compared data from the GKB. For example, if the camera istilted when the image is captured, there may be an error between theimage and the compared data even when the compared data is of the samegeographical location. For example, if the camera is tilted down, thedifference between the mountain skyline captured by the camera and theprojection of mountain elevations on the horizon may appear to begreater than actual. Similarly, if the camera is tilted upward thedifference between the mountain skyline and elevation projections mayappear to be lower. This could result in large error and possibleincorrect or inconsistent location determinations based on the projectedelevation comparisons. Further, if the camera has a roll or side tiltwhile the image is captured, a grade, or elevation change may bedetected when there isn't one. The roll may cause error to increase fromlarge positive on the left side of the image to large negative on theright, or vice versa depending on the direction of the roll. Because ofthese inconsistencies and possible introduced errors, the tilt and theroll of the camera as well as the relative distance to features in theimage may be estimated. Estimates of the tilt and roll may be used tominimize the error between the annotated horizon projections of the DEM.

In some embodiments, it may be necessary to estimate the tilt of thecamera when the image of the environment is captured. FIG. 4A depicts atilted image 400 of an environment captured by the camera. The cameramay be tilted up or down affecting the perceived elevation changes ofthe hills and objects in the image as described above. In thisparticular case the camera is tilted upward causing a center line 402 ofthe image to be in the sky. Objects in image may be used to estimateupper and lower bounds to constrain candidate solutions. An upper bound406 and a lower bound 404 of the camera tilt may be estimated from theimage of the environment. The horizontal centerline 402 of the image maybe used against the horizon and the ground in the image 400 to estimatean actual horizon line and determine a range of tilt options for thecamera. Further, a most likely tilt may be determined. The most likelytilt may be used to normalize the image such that it can be compared tothe data in the GKB. Any GKB data matching the image within the upperbound 406 and the lower bound 404 may be stored for further analysis.The GKB locations more closely matching the normalized image may begiven a higher likelihood of a geolocation match.

Similarly, camera roll may be estimated. FIG. 4B depicts a rolled image412 of exemplary environment obtained by the camera that has a rollbias. Objects in the image may be used as well as the image boundaryitself to estimate roll characteristics of the camera when the image wasobtained to constrain candidate solutions. For example, buildings,towers, poles, or any other objects may be used to estimate the roll ofthe camera. A building edge may be assumed to be vertical. If thebuilding edge is at a slight angle, the camera may be assumed to have aroll bias proportional to the angle. In FIG. 4B a motorcyclist is usedto determine a vertical centerline through the motorcyclist and the rollangle of +1.4 degrees of the camera may be determined based on thecenterline. The image may be normalized or adjusted to compensate forthe angle around this vertical line. In some embodiments, a plurality ofobjects may be used and compared to a horizon or other objects todetermine a likely roll and estimates of lower and upper bounds ofcamera roll may optionally be calculated. Block 414 depicts a+1.4-degree roll angle and blocks 416 and 418 represent+3- and −1-degreeroll bias respectively.

In some embodiments, the terrain is recognized to determine the relativeorder of objects in the image. FIG. 4C depicts an image 422 of ahillside featuring several ridgelines. The relative order of theridgelines can be determined based on the height and cover. For example,the first ridgeline 430 (closest to the camera) can be determined as itis the lowest in elevation and fully visible. Any ridgeline further fromthe camera must be higher in projected elevation to be present in theimage. The next ridgeline 428 is between the first ridgeline 430 and thefinal ridgeline 426 which is the top line of the hill. The finalridgeline 426 may also be referred to as the horizon. In someembodiments, the farthest possible ridgeline from the camera may be thehorizon. Depth ordering of the horizon and ridgelines may be used toeliminate geographic location candidates. The order and the ridgelineelevation may be used to determine the location of the user by utilizingfocal length and heading error when compared to the GKB data asdescribed below.

In some embodiments, the date, time, sun location, sun angle, stars,lakes, rivers, ocean, and any other visible environmental features maybe used to determine camera characteristics such as tilt, roll, andrelative order. For example, if the ocean is in view, the horizon may beused to determine tilt and roll very easily with the horizon of theocean. The ocean horizon on a small scale is flat and level such thatany angle may be relatively determined. Further, the sun location andangle relative to the horizon may be used to determine the camera angle.

Further, the location and angle of the sun and the location of the starsmay be used in determining the geographic location of the environment inthe image and user. The location of the sun and stars as well as thedate and time may be used to narrow down the search to a smallergeographic area and, consequently a fewer number of cells and gridpoints for analysis. For example, the moon may appear in the imageobtained by the user in a relative location to the big dipper. Based onthe camera tilt and roll and the relationship between the moon, thestars, the horizon, and any other information obtained from the image,geolocation candidates that may not contain the relative information maybe omitted from further analysis.

During the matching phase, the image, video, text description,annotations, and any other data is received from the user. The userinput data is then compared to the GKB data to determine likely matchesand provide the user with likely geolocation candidates. The matchingprocess may go through a series of data reduction processes to reducethe data analysis and matching. The further the location can benarrowed, the fewer cells and grids that must be compared and,therefore, the faster potential matches can be found. Given the hugenumber of initial potential matches, reducing the data for comparison isimportant.

In some embodiments, the user may be a computer system as depicted inFIG. 1. The image, annotations, and any other information provided bythe user described herein may be provided by a processor accessing oneor more non-transitory computer-readable media storing instructions forcapturing the image, recognizing objects and features, performing edgedetection, and annotating any information determined and estimated. Anyof the information provided to the system for determining the locationmay be provided by the computer system.

In some embodiments, the goal of rough matching is to reduce the numberof location candidates by finding a combination of heading and Field ofView (FOV) for each grid point that produces the smallest error. Thiscan be accomplished by processing the query image by selecting a numberof equally spaced points along the horizon, interpolate the horizon datafor discrete radials at the evaluation points, calculate tilt and roll,match error for large numbers of grid points simultaneously, selectoptimal heading and FOV increments, and loop through discrete sets ofheadings and FOV and retain most likely “best” matches as describedbelow. A person of skill in the art will recognize that focal length andFOV have a close relationship in optics and that focal length may besubstituted for FOV, or vice versa, in the description and thecalculations provide herein.

If a general location is known, all other data may be omitted fromanalysis. As in the example provided above, if a user knows that thelocation is in Kabul, Afghanistan, then Kabul is labeled as a region ofinterest and only cells within this region are analyzed. In someembodiments, this region is referred to as region-specific data. In someembodiments, the region-specific data may be all GKB data or any subsetthereof.

In some embodiments, the image received from the user is evaluated forthe horizon. Any information obtained and determined from the imagesubmitted by the user may be referred to as image characteristics. Afixed number of equally-spaced evaluation points may be selected alongthe horizon. Using a fixed number of evaluation points allows forcomparison of discrete ridgelines without comparing a large number ofpoints. By comparing this relatively low number of points with GKB data,impossible candidates from the region-specific data of the GKB withinthe region of interest drop out quickly.

Further, the analysis calculates possible tilt, roll, and match errorbetween the image and the GKB data for large number of grid pointssimultaneously. This is performed in a matrix calculation for all setsof grid points in the area of interest against the discrete evaluationpoints in the image. This process can be performed using efficientdistributed and parallel processing and quickly reduces the number ofpossible candidates for further evaluation.

In some embodiments, from the remaining list of candidates, optimalheading and FOV increments are selected for further analysis of thecandidates. In some embodiments, focal length may be substituted for FOVbecause they have a close optical relationship. Determining the FOV andheading optimal increments is described in detail below. The heading andthe FOV for each increment for each candidate is compared to the imageto determine the closeness, or the error between the image and theregion-specific data. The elevation and ridgeline as well as anylandmark and landcover may be compared. The heading and FOV for eachcandidate may be looped through the comparison and the top, most likelylocations, or least error comparison between the heading and the FOV maybe stored for further higher resolution analysis.

As depicted in FIG. 5 a candidate heading and FOV is matched for errorevaluation. The actual recognized ridgeline of a mountain 502 isdepicted as a solid line 504 and a matched ridgeline from the GKB datais shown as a dashed line 506. In some embodiments, the ridgeline may betraced by the user before submission such that the ridgeline does notneed to be recognized. Here, the lines are representative of theevaluation points described above. The solid line is representative ofthe evaluation points projected in the image and the dashed line isrepresentative of the horizon points evaluated from the radialprojections from the grid points described above. If the heading is notcorrect the solid line 504 and the dashed line 506 are offset or shiftedleft or right. The amount of shift may indicate the amount that theheading is off based on the distance to the ridgeline. If the FOV isoff, the scale of the dashed line 506 and the solid line 504 will bedifferent. This may be indicative of a FOV difference and the distanceto the ridgeline may be adjusted. The error calculation between thesolid line 504 determined from the image and the dashed line 506determined from the GKB data is provided in equation 1:

$\begin{matrix}{{Error}{{= \sqrt{\frac{1}{n}{\sum\left( e_{i} \right)^{2}}}},}} & (1)\end{matrix}$

(i.e., the root-mean-square error (RMSE)), where e_(i) is the differencebetween the GKB ridgeline points and the ridgeline evaluation pointsprojected on the image as described above. In some embodiments, othermetrics may be used that generate a comparison between the GKB data andthe image data.

Tilt and roll of the camera may also cause differences in the comparisonof the image ridgeline and horizon and the GKB ridgelines and horizons.As described above the tilt may cause the ridgeline to be higher orlower in the image and the roll may cause the ridgeline to have a morepositive or negative grade. These differences will also be adjusted asdescribed above. In the example provided, the tilt and roll of thecamera is already adjusted and assumed to be corrected.

In some embodiments, the error may have a direct correlation to thechange in the FOV. For example, for at constant heading there may be alarger error for a smaller FOV. This is a result of the number of pixelsin a given FOV. As FOV increases the number of pixels increases.Therefore, the relative error decreases. Ideally, FOV and headingincrements must represent the same change in pixels for all FOV andheading combinations. For example, FOV varies progressively as describedin equation 2:

$\begin{matrix}{\frac{fov_{i + 1}}{fov_{i}} = {{constant} = \left( \frac{fov_{\max}}{fov_{\min}} \right)^{\frac{1}{n - 1}}}} & (2)\end{matrix}$

Heading increment (Δh_(i)) may be proportional to the FOV as describedin equation 3:

$\begin{matrix}{\frac{\Delta h_{i}}{fov_{i}} = {{constant} = \beta}} & (3)\end{matrix}$

The number of FOV and heading combinations may be determined usingequation 4:

$\begin{matrix}{N = {{\sum\limits_{i = 1}^{n}\frac{360}{\Delta h_{i}}} = {{\frac{fov_{n}}{\Delta h_{n}}{\sum\limits_{i = 1}^{n}\frac{360}{fov_{i}}}} = {\frac{fov_{\max}}{\Delta h_{\max}}{\sum\limits_{i = 1}^{n}\frac{360}{fov_{i}}}}}}} & (4)\end{matrix}$

By satisfying these requirements, the user inquiry may be similarlysensitive to changes in heading and FOV.

The optimal heading and FOV increments may be determined by selecting aFOV range, selecting N, determining β, and determining n. β may bedetermined by evaluating the sensitivity of the skyline or horizon dueto changes in FOV heading. In some embodiments, the maximum allowableerror, or error due to worst case is

${{\pm \frac{\Delta fov}{2}}\mspace{14mu}{and}}\mspace{14mu} \pm \frac{\Delta h}{2}$

and likelihood is determined as shown in equation 5:

$\begin{matrix}{{likelihood}{= {1 - {\frac{error}{error_{\max}}.}}}} & (5)\end{matrix}$

A person of skill in the art will recognize that focal length and FOVhave a close relationship in optics and that focal length may besubstituted for FOV in the description and the calculations provideherein.

Further, for matching and reduction of geolocation candidates, landmarksin the FOV may be verified. Any landmarks that are in the FOV of theimage may be in the FOV determined by matching. The steps of determininglandmarks and matching landmarks may be optional. Further, the systemmay optionally check for any further text or annotations provided by theuser and verify that all is indicated. For example, in an urbanenvironment, roads and intersections may be visible in the image. Theroads and road angles must match as well as the horizon, skyline, andridgelines. FIG. 6 depicts a rural environment. The house 602 in theimage 600 may be a landmark that must be matched at the particularlocation. The fence 604 and the house 602 may be landmarks further usedto narrow the list of geographic location candidates. Further, thelandmarks in the image 600 must match the location in the image suchthat the relative elevation to the surrounding environment and therelative distances between other objects and landmarks match with theregion-specific data.

Continuing with the embodiment depicted in FIG. 6, when object heightsin the image 600 are unknown, relative heights may be used for matching.For example, the front trees 606 in the foreground may be a similarheight to back trees 608 on the horizon. Without knowing the actualheights, a ratio of the tree heights may be determined and compared tothe distances between the location in the foreground and the location inthe background. This comparison may be made using the GKB data andrelative locations of the trees in the image. This method may beparticularly useful when comparing GKB data with query images that havenon-distinct horizons such as flat grasslands. Landmarks may be comparedin this way to match GKB data with the image landmarks to reduce thenumber of acceptable geolocation candidates.

In some embodiments, multi-frame annotations may be submitted forlocation query. The multi-frame images may be spliced together. Themulti-frame image may comprise individually captured frame images orpanoramic images. The images may be spliced together by matching theridgeline and landmarks together. Camera tilt, roll, and relative depthof order may be compensated for as described above. To match multipleframe images of a location there may be minimum requirements. Forexample, in some embodiments, the images must be taken at most 250meters apart with FOV estimates within four degrees and headingdifferences between ten degrees and forty-five degrees. These variancesallow for accurate recognition and matching between the images such thata larger view of the environment can be compared to the GKB data. Thislarger image may result in more information for the image and eliminateGKB geographic candidates more quickly.

When rough matching is complete and a relatively small number ofcandidates remain, a fine matching sequence may be initiated to furtherfind the most likely geolocations. FIGS. 7A-C depict a high resolutionfine matching process. The fine matching process may adjust the FOV,heading, tilt, and roll of the rough candidates to minimize match error.The number of evaluation points along the ridgeline in the image may beincreased to increase the resolution in the comparison. The horizon andridge projections may be calculated directly from the DEM. Again, thematch likelihood is given by equation 5, above.

FIG. 7A depicts a mountainous region 700 with a front mountain 702 and aback mountain 704. The front mountain has ridgelines 706, 708, and 710,and top line 712. The back mountain has top line 714. FIG. 7B depictsone loop of fine matching of a geographical candidate with an adjustmentin the FOV to 67 meters from the 100-meter grid point as discussedabove. FIG. 7C depicts a second loop with a further narrowing to 38meters from the 100-meter grid point. In FIGS. 7B-C a large number ofevaluation points 716 are provided across the ridgelines. It can be seenin FIG. 7B that the ridgeline 718 and the determined evaluation pointsfor the ridgeline 720 do not match. In FIG. 7C through more loops andfinal refinement, the ridgeline from the image and the ridgeline fromthe region-specific data match. Each successive loop may narrow in on acloser match. If the refinement creates more error, then the matching isfinished, and the error is compared to other candidates for presentationto the user.

In some embodiments, an uncertainty polygon may be created, and resultclusters may be determined to determine proximate geographic candidatesto known candidates. Uncertainty polygons may be created using the meandistance to the horizon from a grid point. The uncertainty polygons maybe calculated as described in the equations below.

$\begin{matrix}{{\Delta x} = {\frac{\Delta h}{2}\overset{\sim}{R}}} & (6) \\{{\Delta\; y} = {\frac{\Delta fo{v/2}}{fov}\overset{\sim}{R}}} & (7)\end{matrix}$

Where {tilde over (R)} is median distance to the horizon from the gridpoint. After the uncertainty polygons are determined and combinedcluster analysis may be used to identify alternative candidates that mayexist inside the uncertainty polygons. In some embodiments, a 100 meterradius of uncertainty may be assumed for each grid point.

In some embodiments, after final refinement, the number of candidatesmay still be too large. A limit to the number of geolocation candidatesmay be created. An exemplary limit to the number of geolocationcandidates may be 50 candidates total for the area searched. Pruning mayoptionally be implemented to rid the geolocation candidate list ofexcess geolocation candidates. For example, an error threshold may beset to exclude any geolocation candidates that have an error above thethreshold. The threshold may be set to exclude by error or set toexclude by number. Further, the geolocation candidates may optionally beranked by the error such that the highest ranking (least error) areranked at the top and the lowest ranking (most error) rank toward thebottom. The candidates may be pruned based on this ranking system.

In some embodiments, the error thresholds may depend on the uniquenessand the proximity of query image features such as, for example, horizon,ridgelines, heading and radial alignment, visible land cover, and anyother image features and GKB data as described above. In someembodiments, the error threshold further depends on annotated featuresand descriptions provided by the user such as, for example, adescription of a road name or body of water. All image data and accuracyof the matching of the image data with the GKB data may be used forthreshold and ranking systems.

FIG. 8 depicts an exemplary process for reducing the geolocationcandidates to a manageable size for presentation to the user representedgenerally by the reference numeral 800. Initially, at step 802, the opensource global data is collected and combined to create the GKB. Theglobal data may be collected, and the usable earth surface area may bebroken up into one-degree by one-degree grids as described above. Insome embodiments, the surface may be broken up into 0.2-degree by0.2-degree grid for more refined analysis. The geographic data may thenbe pre-analyzed and the open source mapping, DEM, and other satellitedata, images, and annotations may be combined to create the digitalenvironment for comparison to the image information. Further, the cellsmay be broken into 100-meter triangular grids. At each grid point of thetriangular grid a radial projection of lines one-degree apart may becreated. The elevation along the lines and intersection with the horizonmay be determined for matching with ridgeline and horizon informationdetermined from the image. Masks may be created for the data in eachcell to efficiently match with the images as described in embodimentsabove.

At step 804, all grid points and cells created for storage in the GKBmay be reduced by filtering data that does not have any land, landmarks,and any data usable for comparison to image information. This mayinclude any ocean regions, or regions that are not supported by the datainitially obtained from the open source data.

At step 806, geometric candidates are reduced based on the roughmatching comparison to the image as described in embodiments above. Theimage is submitted by the user and received by the application. Theimage may be analyzed for camera characteristics such as tilt, roll, andrelative depth order to features in the image. Further, ridgeline dataand horizon data as well as landmarks, land cover, relative distancesbetween features within the image, and relative sizes and actual sizesand distances of features within the image may be analyzed forcomparison to the GKB region-specific data. The image data such as, forexample, the horizon, may be evaluated at evaluation points projectedonto the horizon to reduce the data to be analyzed. In some embodiments,a list of the lowest error geolocation candidates is determined andmoved into the fine matching phase for further analysis.

At step 808, the list of geolocation candidates is analyzed in a finematching process. Each candidate may be processed through a loop ofsuccessive higher fidelity matches adjusting the FOV and the heading aswell as tilt and roll angles. Any data compared in the rough matchingmay be performed in the fine matching but with more evaluation pointsfor higher resolution. When the lowest error geolocations are found aprocess of uncertainty polygon and result clustering is performed todetermine the result confidence. Further, ranking the candidates basedon the error calculations and pruning to only candidates with errorbelow, or rank above, thresholds may be performed.

At step 810, the final list of geographic location candidates may bepresented to the user. The list of geolocation candidates may be anyamount from one candidate to the total global data. An amount thresholdmay be selected such as, for example, 300, 100, 10, or any other number.In some embodiments, the threshold for candidate list amount may bebased on the error for each, or for a plurality of, geometric candidatescompared to the image query.

In some embodiments, the user may view the locations of the geometriccandidates from satellite images and from ground view. The user mayprovide feedback and another query, and the analysis may be performedusing the feedback.

Many different arrangements of the various components depicted, as wellas components not shown, are possible without departing from the scopeof the claims below. Embodiments of the invention have been describedwith the intent to be illustrative rather than restrictive. Alternativeembodiments will become apparent to readers of this disclosure after andbecause of reading it. Alternative means of implementing theaforementioned can be completed without departing from the scope of theclaims below. Certain features and subcombinations are of utility andmay be employed without reference to other features and subcombinationsand are contemplated within the scope of the claims. Although theinvention has been described with reference to the embodimentsillustrated in the attached drawing figures, it is noted thatequivalents may be employed, and substitutions made herein withoutdeparting from the scope of the invention as recited in the claims.

Having thus described various embodiments of the invention, what isclaimed as new and desired to be protected by Letters Patent includesthe following:

1. A method of determining a geographic location from a comparison of animage of an environment and global data, comprising the steps of:obtaining data indicative of regions of the earth from a plurality ofdata sources, wherein the data indicative of the regions of the earthcomprises at least elevation data; creating a grid of latitude bylongitude cells from the data indicative of the regions of the earth andcombining the data indicative of the regions of the earth to createregion-specific data in each cell of the grid; receiving an image of theenvironment at the geographic location; analyzing the image of theenvironment to determine camera characteristics and imagecharacteristics; comparing the camera characteristics and the imagecharacteristics to the region-specific data in at least one of thecells; determining a list of likely geographic location candidates thatmatch the environment in the image based on the comparison; andpresenting the user with the list of geographic location candidates. 2.The method of claim 1, wherein the image characteristics are at leastone of horizon data and further comprising the steps of: estimatingupper and lower bounds for the tilt and the roll of the camera, whereincomparison of the image to the region-specific data occurs afterdetermining the tilt, roll, field-of-view and heading in the image. 3.The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of: creating a gridin each cell, wherein each grid comprises grid points and grid-lineintersections; and creating 360-degree radial equally spaced projectionsfrom each grid point; and determining at least one elevation on eachprojection line using the region-specific data comprising elevationdata.
 4. The method of claim 3, further comprising the steps of:determining at least one horizon in the image and evaluating the horizonat evaluation points; comparing the horizon evaluation points with theelevation at intersections of the horizon and the projection lines; andeliminating a plurality of grid point candidates based on the comparisonof the horizon evaluation points from the image with the elevation onthe projection lines.
 5. The method of claim 1, further comprising thesteps of: determining landmarks in the image, and comparing thelandmarks to the region-specific data.
 6. The method of claim 5, whereinthe landmarks are at least one of a natural feature and a man-madestructure.
 7. The method of claim 1, wherein the list of geographiclocation candidates is based on a calculated error between the imagecharacteristics, the camera characteristics, and the region-specificdata.
 8. The method of claim 1, wherein the region-specific datacomprises a plurality of the cells; and further comprising the step ofcombining results from the comparison of the plurality of the cells intoa final geographic location candidate comprising at least location,field of view, tilt, roll, and heading.
 9. The method of claim 1,wherein the comparison is further based on evaluation points of ahorizon in the image compared to elevation data indicative of a horizonin the region-specific data; and further comprising the steps of:increasing a number of evaluation points of the image; and comparing theimage with the increased number of evaluation points with each candidatefrom the list of geographic location candidates.
 10. At least onenon-transitory computer-readable media storing computer-executableinstructions that, when executed by a processor, perform a method ofdetermining a geographic location from a comparison of an image of anenvironment and region-specific data, the method comprising the stepsof: obtaining data indicative of regions of the earth from a pluralityof data sources; creating a grid of cells from the data indicative ofthe regions of the earth; combining the data indicative of the regionsof the earth for each cell to create the region-specific data; receivingthe image of the environment from a camera; analyzing the image of theenvironment to determine camera characteristics and imagecharacteristics; wherein the image characteristics comprises a set ofevaluation points projected onto a horizon in the image; estimating thecamera characteristics; comparing the camera characteristics and theimage characteristics to the region-specific data; determining an errorbetween the image characteristics and the camera characteristics and theregion-specific data; determining a list of geographic locationcandidates based on the error; and presenting the user with the list ofgeographic location candidates.
 11. The method of claim 10, wherein thecamera characteristics are at least tilt, roll, and field of view; andfurther comprising the steps of: analyzing objects in the image todetermine upper and lower bounds for the tilt and the roll of thecamera; adjusting the image based on the tilt and the roll of the cameraand before comparing the image to the region-specific data; anddetermining a relative order of ridgelines in the image.
 12. The methodof claim 10, wherein each cell is further broken into a grid comprisinggrid points; and further comprising the steps of: creating a radial gridof projection lines from each grid point of the grid; and determiningthe elevation and horizon on each projection using at least one of aDigital Elevation Model and a Digital Surface Model.
 13. The method ofclaim 12, further comprising the steps of: determining at least onehorizon at evaluation points from the image and comparing the horizonevaluation points with the elevation on the projection lines; andeliminating a plurality of grid point candidates based on the comparisonof the horizon evaluation points from the image with the elevation onthe projection lines.
 14. The method of claim 10, further comprising thesteps of: determining data indicative of at least one ridgeline in theimage, wherein the at least one ridgeline is not the horizon; comparingthe data indicative of the at least one ridgeline in the image withelevation data in the region-specific data in a matrix formulationcomprising both the data indicative of the horizon and theregion-specific data, wherein the comparison is performed using at leastone of distributed processing and parallel processing.
 15. The method ofclaim 10, further comprising the step of creating masks within each cellto efficiently access the region-specific data for comparison, whereinthe masks are at least one of landmarks, elevation, and land cover. 16.The method of claim 10, further comprising the steps of: ranking eachcandidate in the list of geographic location candidates based on theerror; and pruning the list of geographic location candidates based onthe error.
 17. A system for determining a geographic location of anenvironment depicted in an image comprising: a data store storingregion-specific data indicative of a region of the earth; at least onenon-transitory computer-readable media storing computer-executableinstructions that, when executed by a processor, perform a method ofdetermining a list of geographic locations from a comparison of theimage and the region-specific data, the method comprising the steps of:obtaining data indicative of the earth from a plurality of data sources,wherein the data indicative of the earth comprises at least elevationdata; creating a grid of cells from the data indicative of the earth andcombining the data indicative of the earth to create the region-specificdata in each cell of the grid; receiving the image of the environment;analyzing the image of the environment to determine cameracharacteristics and image characteristics; comparing the cameracharacteristics and the image characteristics in the image to theregion-specific data in at least one of the cells; determining a list oflikely geographic location candidates that match the geographic imagebased on the comparison; and presenting the user with the list ofgeographic location candidates.
 18. The system of claim 17, wherein thecomputer-executable instructions are further executable to perform themethod steps of: creating a secondary grid within each cell of the grid;wherein each secondary grid comprises grid points.
 19. The system ofclaim 18, wherein the computer-executable instructions are furtherexecutable to perform the method steps of: creating radial projectionlines of equal separation from each grid point; determining elevation oneach projection line using at least one of a Digital Elevation Model anda Digital Surface Model while accounting for the Earth's curvature;determining a horizon in the image at evaluation points projected ontothe horizon; and comparing the evaluation points in the image with theelevation on each projection line.
 20. The system of claim 19, whereinthe computer-executable instructions are further executable to performthe method steps of: increasing the number of evaluation pointsprojected onto the horizon of the image; comparing the image with theincreased number of evaluation points with each candidate from the listof geographic location candidates; and ranking each candidate in thelist of geographic location candidates based on the comparison of theimage with the increased number of evaluation points with each candidatefrom the list of geographic location candidates.